


Closed Timelike Loop

by logicalDemoness



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is a Good Boyfriend, Episode: The Librarian, Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, The Desert Otherworld, the masked warriors are total shippers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 01:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3791680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/logicalDemoness/pseuds/logicalDemoness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the otherworld, Carlos tuned into the radio. Sometimes he got broadcasts from the past. Once, he got one from the future. </p><p>Based on a line from "The Librarian".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Closed Timelike Loop

As two masked warriors started the evening bonfire, Carlos set his phone into the makeshift speaker system he had hacked together out of wood, copper wire, and an understanding that the laws of acoustics were slightly different in this world. He opened the livestream app he had programmed using basic scientific knowledge and tuned it to the same channel he tuned it to almost every day at this time, just as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Because of the way time worked (or failed to) between dimensions, it wasn’t always Cecil’s show he heard in the evening. Sometimes it was something else from the NVCR schedule, like _Wait Wait Don’t! No, Please Don’t!_ , which was entertaining enough especially if they had a science category. Sometimes it was white noise, or black noise, or burgundy noise that filled his field of vision for hours after he turned the phone off. But it was _often_ Cecil’s show, and it was always worth trying.

Alisha sat down next to Carlos and waited with him while some of the other warriors drifted into the circle. There was the end of an infomercial for a blood removal service, then there was static, then there was a Voice.

“A picture is worth a thousand words. A video is worth five thousand unspoken thoughts. A sculpture is worth a hundred screams. Welcome to Night Vale.”

Some applause from the gathered warriors; they all knew how much this meant to Carlos. Cecil continued:

“We begin, listeners, with continued coverage of the epidemic of tiny planets that have been appearing all over town this week. Reports are coming in that they are beginning to move out of the fixed positions in space they first manifested in and are slowly drifting toward a common point in Old Town Night Vale. They are currently moving at less than 5 miles per hour and cannot be forced off their path, so if you’re driving in the Old Town area, please be patient.”

Carlos furrowed his brow. He had been worried sick for Cecil since the previous day, when he had found out who really saved the mayor from the antique attack. He hadn't been answering Carlos' texts, which was a sign of serious distress. Today there was no hint of uncertainty in Cecil’s tone. He could just be denying it, but there was also the matter of the story. Carlos hadn’t heard anything about planets appearing recently. “Hmm, guys, I don’t think this is today’s show,” he said. It wouldn’t be the first time they had heard a broadcast from years ago. They could be interesting insights into Night Vale’s history, not to mention Cecil’s personal growth as a broadcaster. However, the next words out of the radio set alarm bells off in Carlos’ head.

“Our top researchers have come up with a theory as to how these celestial bodies could have formed. Here to explain it, I have a very special guest in the studio…” Cecil’s intonation went up half an octave and Carlos thought, _wait, that’s what he sounds like when he’s talking about me_. “…He’s a genius who knows so much about all kinds of science, and is very well-dressed today…” _Okay I don’t remember doing this at all._ “…Of course you know I mean my husband Carlos!”

Carlos’ hand flew to his mouth as he heard his own voice saying, “Thanks, Cecil. Now, I’m a scientist, not an astronomer, but I can confidently say that we have a case of -" Back in the present, Carlos scrambled for the phone and stopped the livestream. The gathered warriors looked puzzled, and a few of them booed.

"I’m sorry, I had to. That broadcast was from the future! I never did that segment, not yet anyway. If I kept listening it could create a paradox, a closed loop of information, what with the nature of time, and, and science and all…” He was starting to babble. “I’ve already heard way too much.”

He sat back down, his heart racing. Alisha lifted their mask and gave him a penetrating stare. They raised an eyebrow. Carlos looked up. “He said ‘husband’, Alisha. At some point we get married.” 

Alisha tilted their head. "Husband? Married?" they said in a soft tone. Their English was improving every time they and Carlos spoke, but they lacked a lot of vocabulary.

“Ah. Married means when you love someone very much, so you make a promise to be together for the rest of your life, and- and you have a wedding, a big party to make it official, and then he's my husband. I mean yours. I mean in general. Husband means a man you married."

Carlos was inarticulate, but Alisha got the gist of it. They pointed at Doug, sitting across the circle, and said, "Husband?" Carlos nodded, "I think so," though he had no knowledge of any wedding rites the masked army may have. He was a scientist, not an anthropologist, so he never asked. They grinned and gave Carlos a thumbs-up, then addressed the circle in their own language, translating the concept as they understood it. The giants began to hoot and cheer and clap. Carlos blushed and hid his head in his hands. He couldn’t stop giggling. _Boy, it’s a good thing I was planning to propose already or this would be a serious paradox,_ he thought. He had hardly doubted the answer anyway, but it felt good to be sure. Knowing this info ahead of time wouldn't change his future; it made him ever more eager to see it unfold.


End file.
